Sermon Central
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Know What You Have (Don't Be Deceived!) Series
Contributed by Bobby Stults on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Deception is the main fighting tactic of the Enemy and we are called to NOT be deceived by his wiles. Paul addresses the Corinthian church and admonishes/challenges them to not be deceived and to not be proud, but that they belong to God!
Do NOT be deceived and do NOT brag on your human wisdom were Paul’s 2 tidbits of instruction for the church here in this passage. Instead Paul sought for all to submit and surrender to the message of the Cross and the Savior it represented! Paul had instructed them what NOT to do and in v23 we find out WHY they were NOT to do these things…
WHY? You Belong to Christ! V23
23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
Paul says that we are NOT to seek human wisdom, we are not to revel in human wisdom and we are not to be prideful about our human wisdom.
Humans do have wisdom that is from God, but human wisdom is always flawed, and Paul wanted these believers to NOT be fooled by human wisdom…so here Paul tells them that they belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God…
In other words, you should NEVER succumb to human wisdom, and why is that? Well you should never because you belong to Christ!
Because we belong to Christ… our lives are no longer our own, but we are His servant. Paul tells us in 2 Cor 7:23 (ESV), “…you were bought with a price, do NOT become the bondservant of men…”
To hold to this blasphemous doctrine these teachers were teaching meant that you had to abandon the message of the Cross and Calvary and had to subscribe to their personal doctrines…
Paul states in 1 Cor 6:19-20 (ESV)
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
You have the Holy Spirit in you… that comes directly from God… He paid THE ultimate price for our soul and for our redemption so we are NOT our own anymore, we belong to Him!
So what Paul is saying here is that we should realize what we have In Christ and NOT be deceived by the message of these false teachers… it may sound wise, but it is the wisdom of the world!
If we begin to believe in the doctrines and wisdom of the world the as Christians we cannot glorify God! However, if we hold fast to doctrines and message of the cross then we deny these teachings and we glorify the God we profess to serve!
We have been bought with a price… God paid the ransom to rescue us and free us from the bondage of sin and we are in His debt… we are not our own…
God does allow us freedom of will and choice but our obedience and submission to Him cannot be contrived by what may or may NOT happen to us… it must be willing and cheerful on our parts!
Conclusion:
What can we take from this passage… well the first thing we can take away from what Paul is saying here is that we must be on guard about being deceived…
Scripture tells us that our Enemy… Satan… is seeking to destroy us by whatever means he can use. Peter put it like this in 1 Pet 5:8 (ESV) 8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Like Paul, Peter says here to be sober minded… that means clear headed… a focused mind… watchful against all things against Christ! He goes onto say in v9 to resist Satan by being FIRM in your faith!